Monthly Archives: April 2008

Need to escape the concerns and conveniences of modern life?
Want to time travel to the secluded peaceful times of the past?

Isle au Haut Lighthouse may be the ideal Bed & Breakfast home of your dreams.
This cozy cottage, located on a isolated island in Maine, has been on the market for the past eight months for the special low introductory price of $2.5 million!

For extra value, this secluded retreat does not include the ownership of the Lighthouse and the access to Lighthouse. The seven-room main house, a four-room house and two small cabins do not include Electricity, Internet, and Televisions. Since you cannot watch the Price is Right to see the showcase of your dreams, the Burke’s have provided “The Isle au Haut Lighthouse Station is for Sale” web page to showcase their home business!

The Light Station was restored in 1986 when the property was converted to a Bed & Breakfast Inn. Isle Au Haut Lighthouse, owned by the Town of Isle Au Haut, was restored during the summer of 1999. For more information about the Lighthouse, please click on the photo of this post.

Bob Chaplin has added a new page to Lighthouse Landscaping by carving a Lighthouse out of his dead tree! After delimbing his dead tree, the wooden pole was notched to look like brickwork and his 34-foot tall Tree Beacon was painted to look like a small replica of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

Bob’s Backyard Beacon lights the way for boaters navigating the Savannah River in Georgia. According to the news, there has been no boat wrecks on the river since he activated his private Lighthouse!

Chaplin’s Lighthouse slogan is, “If you get lost at night, I’ll leave the light on for you.” Is there a Motel 6 nearby?

On April 16, 2008, the Macau government finally issued a regulation to protect the view of Guia Lighthouse, a UNESCO world heritage site.

After months of public pressure, UN pressure on China, and China’s pressure on Macau, all buildings underneath the Guia Lighthouse from Macau Fisherman’s Wharf to the Tap Seac Square will be restricted to height limits that vary depending on the location of the building on Guia Hill.

Jaime Carion, the director of the Lands, Public Works and Transport Bureau, stated “We need to find a way to balance the city’s development with its cultural heritage sites.” The report about 443-foot high wall of Tall Towers in a previous post cannot exceed the height of 172-feet which will allow Guia Lighthouse to shine out to sea unobstructed!

Since 2005, Jeld-Wen has been supplying the windows and doors of historic Lighthouses in need at no cost. The “JELD-WEN Reliable Lighthouse Restoration Initiative” invites all Lighthouse enthusiasts and operators, architects and anyone that supports historic preservation to nominate a lighthouse for new windows and doors at www.jeld-wen.com/lighthouse before midnight Pacific Time on May 18, 2008.

“Lighthouses can be nominated by visiting www.jeld-wen.com/lighthouse and completing a simple questionnaire. Though the public is only required to complete a few of the fields, it is crucial that those of you who own, operate or manage a lighthouse respond to all the questions.” – Bob Trapani, Jr., Executive Director American Lighthouse Foundation

The Lighthouse finalists will be posted for public voting at www.jeld-wen.com/lighthouse.
Please consider nominating a Lighthouse before the May 18, 2008 deadline and voting for a Lighthouse to win new windows and doors.

Last year, Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, located on Chesapeake Bay near

Annapolis, Md., and Wind Point Lighthouse, located on Lake Michigan near Racine, Wisconsin were renovated with new windows & doors. Both Lighthouses received over 20,000 votes and JELD-WEN couldn’t decide between the two!

Calling any Bond agent in need of a secret sea fort with £4 million ($7.88 million) in spare change. Since a Portsmouth County Court judge has refused to evict a 42-year-old Indian businessman, the new owner may need MI6 secret skills to evict the current owner, Harmesh Pooni!

According to the news report, Harmesh Pooni bought the 200-foot diameter fort and three-bedroom Lighthouse with a 360-degree observatory for £3 million ($5.91 million) in 2004. The massive circular granite sea fort was converted to a Luxury Hotel with a central glass atrium courtyard in the 1980s.

Lexi Holdings, the investors backing Pooni, claim they own the fort and need to sell the property after their business sank in a sea of £100 million ($197 million) debt in October 2006. Naturally, Harmesh Pooni who contracted legionnaires’ disease from the contaminated water in the Fort’s natural well, believes he is the rightful owner!

To prevent the sale of the fort, Pooni has barricaded himself in the fort’s lighthouse and he survives on eating rations. Pooni stated, “It is very spooky at night. I just sit up in the lighthouse and look at all the lights on the shoreline and hope that the legal situation is resolved in my favour.” The possession of the Sea Fort is moving from the High Seas to the High Court.

Fort Lighthouse Background:

No Man’s Land Fort and Lighthouse, located in the Solent between the city of Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight off the southern coast of Britain, was completed in 1880 to defend Portsmouth from the French Navy.

The Fort was abandoned after the French were no longer a threat and briefly used during the two Great Wars. In 1956, the Fort was deactivated and The Ministry of Defence sold the fort in 1963.

In 1971, the Fort was featured in the Dr Who adventure TV movie, “The Sea Devils” starring Jon Pertwee. During the 1980s, the fort was converted into a 21-room Luxury Hotel with two helipads and a heated indoor swimming pool.

In 2004, the fort went on the market for £2-3 million after the corporate events company collapsed. Legionella bacteria was discovered in the hotel’s water system in July, 2004. His hotel was forced to close and the company collapsed.